Bates - BT766 B3 1699

Spiritual Perfecrazion. â ,7 But if an Injury be once offer'd, 'tis pro- voking as if it were re-aced every day, by the continual remembrance of it. But the Command is aria and univerfal, and allows no freedom, but of voluntary Obedience. To make us feel the weight of the Duty, and to be more tenderly fenlble of it, our Saviour tells us, If you do not forgive, neither will your hea- venly Father forgive your trefpaf es. An unforgiving Temper is an invincible Bar againíf our obtaining divine Mercy. We can neither receive Pardon, nor have it continued, nor enjoy the Comfortable Senfe of it, without pardoning others. 'Tis a fin of fuck Malignity, that it in- veLlomes Poifon it felf; it aEluates the Guilt of all other Sins ; and feats the doom of the unrelenting and hardned a- gainff the offending Brother. The Ser- vant that upon his humble Requefl, had TenThoufand Talents forgiven, yet up- on his cruel exaaing Three Hundred Pence from his Fellow -fervant, his Par- don was Reverff, and he was deliver'd to the Tormentors, till his Debt was en- tirely paid. The lines of this Duty are clearly drawn in the divine Pattern fet before us. God pardons Sins intirely, he blots them out as a thick cloud : the Saints in Heaven, are as accepted in his Sight, as the Angels that always obey'd his R 4 Com-

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